The full remarks of Thomas, Tyler and Scaggs appear below in this article, along with comments about Elvis from other musicians evaluating his legacy.

Of course, asking if he was a thief is a provocative question. But, 40 years after his death, it’s still a relevant one in the case of this Mississippi-truck-driver-turned-global-superstar, whose career ignited in the mid-1950s.

Three of Elvis’ landmark early recordings — "All Shook Up," "Don't Be Cruel" and "Return to Sender" — were written by Otis Blackwell, who also wrote the Jerry Lee Lewis classics “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless.”

Elvis’ versions were almost identical to how Blackwell sang them on his demonstration recordings. But Elvis could reach an enormous national audience, and did.

African-American artists like Blackwell were relegated to so-called “race music” record labels and radio stations, at a time when much of the U.S. was still segregated.

While Elvis was a fan of country music, he was even more inspired by blues, gospel and rhythm-and-blues, including the Memphis radio shows hosted by such local disc jockeys as B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, both of whom also sang live during their broadcasts. Elvis heard this same music played live at the black nightclubs he frequented as a teenager and young adult.

Pre-Elvis Elvis meets Ike Turner

Ike Turner, a largely unsung rock pioneer, recalled in a 1997 Union-Tribune interview how Presley would come to see him perform in Memphis.

"I knew Elvis before he became Elvis," said Turner, a longtime San Diego County resident who died in 2007. In the early 1950s, he recorded for Sun Records, the same label that signed Elvis in 1954.

Sun honcho Sam Phillips had been searching for “a white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel.” He hit pay-dirt with Elvis, who took plenty of mental notes in the Memphis clubs where Turner and other greats performed for black audiences.

"Elvis used to drive a gravel truck, and park it by the back entrance of the West Memphis club where I was playing,” Turner recalled in his Union-Tribune interview.

“He was a nice guy, a likable guy. He would come in, and I'd smile and pull my piano out so he could sit there and people in the club wouldn't see him. I used to hide him behind the piano, because it was a black club and it was segregated.

"He'd come once or twice a week; I didn't even know he was going to other (black Memphis) clubs. Matt Murphy and Little Junior Parker were playing at this same club as me. The way (Elvis) moved his legs when he was singing, he got from me, because I'd do that when I played piano. And a lot of the stuff he and Jerry Lee Lewis did was copied off Pinetop (Perkins) and what we were doing.

“It was easier for them (to succeed), because they were white… But everybody, in some way, was influenced by somebody (else)."

Many of Elvis’ other classic early recordings were also cover versions of songs by great black artists. They included Little Junior Parker's "Mystery Train,” Arthur Gunter's "Baby Let's Play House," Kokomo Arnold's "Milkcow Blues Boogie," “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Need You So," Jesse Stone’s “Money Honey” and Smiley Lewis' “One Night (of Sin)" (whose title was toned down to "One Night With You" in the Elvis version.)

The new 3-CD Sony Legacy box set, “A Boy From Tupelo — The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings” features many of these songs and is a treasure trove for those seeking to hear Elvis in his early years.

Bono weighs in on Elvis

"What's interesting to me is the very early Elvis," U2 singer Bono said in a 1997 Union-Tribune interview. "And if you want to be academic about it, he did what the civil-rights movement didn't and couldn't. He jammed together two cultures, and in that spastic dance of his, you could actually see that fusion and that energy.

"And that is, in the end, what's great about America, the sex of the place. To me, as the century ends, that (sexuality) is one of the defining moments of it. And that's why rock 'n' roll is valuable — it has the rhythm and the hips of African music, and the melody of European music."

Those hips — read pelvic thrusts and gyrations — were copied from the black artists Elvis studied so carefully in Memphis nightclubs. And the suggestiveness of those stage moves ensured that Elvis’ 1956 debut performance on the Ed Sullivan show was broadcast to TV viewers with camera angles that only showed Elvis from the waist up.

When he performed his first 1957 concert at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, reviews described his performance as "a terrible popular twist on darkest Africa's fertility tom-tom displays," and "far too indecent to mention in any detail."

Such narrow-minded reviews notwithstanding, Elvis owed much of his success to the fact that he was a white man performing black music for a mass white audience largely unwilling to accept — let alone support — rock and R&B performed by its black originators.

In a series of new and previous Union-Tribune interviews, we asked an array of artists from across the musical spectrum to evaluate Elvis, his originality (or lack thereof) and his legacy. Here’s what they told us…

Boz Scaggs: “Elvis was no more a thief than any other artist I know. No more, no less. We all come from someplace.”

Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler: "If I could sit down with Elvis, I'd smack him in the face for not giving credit to all those black musicians. For years I've been struggling with that. You know, he was a great man, but he maliciously — or maybe unconsciously — took all the credit."

Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas: “Yeah, but I think he was an innocent thief — he didn’t realize he wasn’t supposed to steal. In his mind, I think he thought he was taking what he loved and paying homage. In some ways, he was a product of a fog of ignorance that existed in the 1950s. Had he been part of a more aware decade, he would have been one of the more aware people.”

Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro: "I respect what Elvis did, but I'm pretty much indifferent to the whole thing. There aren't that many artists that have affected me on a deep level and he's not one of them. Even though I'm aware that he's influenced people who influenced people who influenced me, when it comes to feeling connected, I'm just not."

Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood: "The reality is that black R&B and blues was the instigator that sparked this whole fire. You can't listen to any music now without tracing the umbilical cord back to blues and R&B. It's just a fact."

Neo-soul singer Maxwell: “It’s a very touchy subject. Because it’s like it was appropriation, but there was a certain window that was opened that never would have been opened without people like Elvis and The Beatles. They were into the grooves and soul of black music and introduced it to the world at large. And then the world caught on to the original artists Elvis and The Beatles were inspired by. So it was kind of like a civil rights breakthrough, as I see it.”

Jon Bon Jovi: "I loved him, but I don't want to be him. He was the first prisoner of rock 'n' roll and it was self-inflected wounds that he died of at 42... I don't want it to end and I don't want to be the fat guy in the white suit. Elvis died from the inside out."

Former Sex Pistols’ singer John Lydon (a/k/a Johnny Rotten): "Elvis is absolutely irrelevant. He was something my parents liked, so I naturally dismissed him. I've never been overly fond of rock `n' roll anyway, (although) I don't wish death on anyone. I've had far more awful examples (than Elvis) right up close and personal to really bother about someone like him."

Jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis: “All great music is thievery. Beethoven stole from Haydn, and everybody stole from Bach. Charlie Parker stole from Lester Young, who stole from Frankie Trumbauer. People who like Elvis don’t want to hear the facts.”

Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis: "To me, Elvis represented somebody who — because our country was not ready then to embrace the black artist and make them No. 1 — became No. 1 because of his rendition of what some black people sounded like. What made it distasteful is that we had people who could do it better than him, but who couldn't be accepted at that time because of the color of their skin."

San Diego guitar great Mike Keneally: "It took me forever to even understand his appeal; he was never a topic of study for me. He was so ubiquitous, I figured there were so many other more obscure things I should devote myself to. So I never heard the original Sun recordings until a few years ago and that stuff just kicked my ass completely. Regardless of whether he was an innovator or not, the fact that he was the catalyst for that stuff is enough to put him in the pantheon of giants."

Tony Bennett: "Elvis was the first Coca-Cola bottle, the first human Coca-Cola bottle. He was just marketed that way. I met him once at Paramount Studios. He was a gorgeous Adonis of a man and a great guy, very, very elegant looking. He looked like a Greek statue. More than that, he was very warm and nice. But when you hear him, it's not like Nat King Cole singing a song. When you listen to Elvis, it’s almost like country music, there's a simplistic unreality to it all."

Jethro Tull mastermind Ian Anderson: "Well, I went to see Elvis at one of his comeback dates in Las Vegas in 1969. Seeing him in Vegas, in his white jumpsuit, was very interesting, in terms of seeing how music that starts off with a fire in somebody's belly ends up being an inferno in somebody's wallet. It was pure show-biz. And although he worked hard and well that night, he gave the impression of a man not in total control of his chemical future. He seemed to only give lip service to the essence of his songs."

Alice Cooper: "I think everybody puts a little of Elvis into their show. I was invited to come up and meet him in 1971 in Vegas. I got in this private elevator and it was Chubby Checker, Linda Lovelace, Liza Minnelli and me, going up to see Elvis. He walked in and was really looking good, he wasn't overweight or drugged out. He said, `You're the guy with the snake, aren't you? That's really cool.' Then he takes me in the kitchen, puts a loaded .38 gun in my hand, and says: `I'll show you how to disarm somebody.' He didn't hurt me, but he knocked me to the floor with one of his karate chops."

Quincy Jones: "Before Elvis, white pop music was `The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and `How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?' Then Elvis came on (the Tommy- and Jimmy Dorsey-hosted CBS-TV show) `Stage Time' in 1956, and they wouldn't shoot him below the waist because they still couldn't handle anybody shaking their (rear) — black or white. And the show got 8,000 letters about his performance. I could see it then, I thought: `Things are going to change because they've discovered how to emotionally feel music.' This had been happening with black music forever, but this was the first time young white kids did. It was amazing to watch."

John Oates of Hall & Oates: “I think the story of American music — jazz, blues and how all those styles evolved — is a story of appropriation across the board, from the very beginning. How far do you want to go? Do you want to take it back to Africa, and say American-born slaves appropriated music that they got from their ancestors and re-imagined and re-crafted it as part of their lives and American experience? And, then, the next step was that white Americans heard and re-created and re-imagined the same music. It goes on and on, and I think it’s the history of American popular music. It’s really built upon the shoulders of everything that came before.”

In 1987 Boston played Night #2 in the band’s historic nine-night run at the Centrum in Worcester. What Boston band opened the show?

ANSWER: Farrenheit

What else happened on this day in rock n’ roll history? Here’s the Rock N’ Roll Diary for August 14th, from the College of Classic Rock Knowledge – 100.7 WZLX!

Celebrating a birthday today is David Crosby!
1965: The Beatles, in the U.S. for a tour of North America, taped a return appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show which was broadcast on Sept. 12th.
1970: Steven Stills was arrested in a La Jolla, California motel room for possession of cocaine and barbiturates. Police found Stills crawling in the hallway.
1981: The Rolling Stones began rehearsals at Longview Farm in Brookfield, MA for their upcoming tour.
1995: Members of the Grateful Dead met and decided to cancel their already-scheduled fall tour of the U.S. in the wake of Jerry Garcia’s death.
2003: A blackout hitting the northeastern United States forced numerous artists, including Aerosmith, Kiss and Bob Dylan to cancel shows.
2003: Scott Weiland of Stone Temple pilots was sentenced to three years probation on this day following his arrest that May for drug possession.
Checking the WZLX ticket stash…1972: Savoy Brown played the Sunset Series on Boston Common with Fleetwood Mac opening up.
1983: Cheap Trick, Blackfoot and the Joe Perry Project headlined Summer Jam at New England Dragway in Epping, NH.
1987: Boston played night #2 in their historic nine-night sellout at the Worcester Centrum.
1998: Pete Townshend played a solo show at Harbourlights.

Hear Lorde Praise Peter Green-Era Fleetwood Mac, Classic Rock Love on 'WTF'
"Graham Nash is for the ladies," says Lorde of her favorite CSNY member on 'WTF With Marc Maron'

Lorde explained how her synesthesia caused her to listen to lots of classic rock albums in a recent interview on WTF With Marc Maron. "Synesthesia is like when senses overlap," she explained. "You know what's quite good for synesthesia? Weirdly guitar music is not so overwhelming. I could listen to Neil Young or even Fleetwood Mac."

Lorde disappeared down a rock-geek rabbit hole with Maron. The pair discussed the Peter Green edition of Fleetwood Mac vs. the Buckingham/Nicks edition – "I'm obsessed with Fleetwood Mac Peter Green … It's the greatest **** ever," Lorde said. She also talked about her favorite member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. ("Graham Nash is for the ladies.")

"I love the Mamas and the Papas," Lorde added, jumping quickly from one L.A.-based, harmony-heavy act to another, "but that gets a little intense for me synesthesia-wise. There's this crazy modulation going on, all of a sudden we're in a different key. That can get crazy."

Lorde contrasted the making of those classic LPs – session players, live instruments – with her own process, which centers around a small number of individuals (her, producer Jack Antonoff) and heavy use of electronics. "I come from that culture of no one having any instruments," she told Maron. "Sounds come from computers. There's something kind of communist about it."

She stuck to the "communist" ideal when making her second album, even though she could afford to work in a more expensive fashion. "By that point, people were like, 'oh, should we show you some rich stuff?'" she said. "They show you the rich mixing desk. You're like, this doesn't feel like any kid could [have it] – I love the idea of any kid getting the same set of cracked plug-ins that they steal from the internet. That's how we made the song that won us a Grammy ['Royals']. It's literally cracked plug-ins."

"We didn't pay for pro-tools still for like a year after that," she added. "Don't worry, Pro Tools, we pay now."

Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner, who died Wednesday at 91, left an immeasurable impact on American society and culture in a multitude of areas. He was a visionary of the sexual revolution but also the social changes that roiled the 60's. Over the next few days, everyone will reflect and discuss those impacts which began in the 50's with Playboy's beginning and continued—despite the steep decline of magazine popularity that forced a retrenchment—until the end.
Hefner also brought cutting edge music and comedy of various eras into mainstream American living rooms twice in a decade on two syndicated late night TV shows.
Playboy's Penthouse ran from 1959-1960. Its successor, Playboy After Dark, was produced from 1968-1970. Both captured an intimate feel. While they appeared to be taped in Hefner's lavish digs, both were produced at TV studios in Chicago (Penthouse) and LA (After Dark).
Penthouse offered the best jazz and pop music, plus cutting edge comics like Lenny Bruce. After Dark reflected the seachanges in American pop and rock music. In both cases, his guest rosters were diverse, featuring African-American performers rarely seen on network TV. At ease with musicians, Hef asked intelligent questions, allowing them to answer at length. No Ed Sullivan banality here. What follows are samples from both shows. There's plenty more on YouTube.

Playboy After Dark:

January 8, 1970: Fleetwood Mac: "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Coming Your Way." Not the Tusk-era Mac, but the intermediate version. Founder Peter Green is doing lead guitar and vocals. The other guitarists are Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer with the Mick Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section. Note Hef calls them "the Fleetwood Mac."

Mick Fleetwood is not a good drummer. By his own admission, that is. Nobody agrees with him.

Mick has a signature drumming style, such that at 19 I could pick out his hand in the work of Susanna Hoffs, on her comeback album, in the track called Falling. He has experimented for decades, as on the delicate brushwork of Tusk, the off-rhythm, off-tempo stuff he brings out on Go Your Own Way. And yet he learnt his trade as a blues specialist in London in the early 1960s. His saving grace? He actually owned his own drums.

Back then, anyone with a drumkit could pretty much find a band desperate enough to take them on. He roamed the streets of London, staying with his actor sister in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Bands were not imaginative back then. Peter Bardens, his neighbour, offered him a job in his band, the, er, Cheynes. However, that circle of musicians swirled some more, and eventually brought Mick into touch with Peter Green, the powerhouse who drove Fleetwood Mac until that German acid trip from which he never returned.

A proper English gentleman, Mick has always dressed like an Elizabethan dandy. His personal style has left its mark on many Mac album covers. He knows everyone in the UK and the US, does Mick. He played with Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones, Clapton, when they were absolutely at the start of their journeys. Here he is having a stroll in London with another neighbour, Marianne Faithfull.

As a non-writing drummer for hire, Mick has never felt financially secure. All the serious money from his most famous album, Rumours, went to Lindsey, Stevie and Christine. This insecurity forced him to step forwards to keep the band together, sometimes as manager, others as simply the anchor. Apart from a little detour that involved him with Traffic’s Dave Mason and the ever-gorgeous Bekka Bramlett in the 1990s, the Rumours lineup remains intact.

Mick had a perfect ear for talent, discovering Lindsey Buckingham in a studio in Los Angeles in late 1974. Lindsey, as we all now know, refused the offer. Unless his girlfriend could join Fleetwood Mac too. Most of all, at 70, Mick is still out there rocking his socks off. Cheers, Mick.

Today in rock history: on this date in 1968, the Miami Pop Festival took place in south Florida marking the second rock and roll event of its kind to occur on the east coast. The three-day concert took place at Gulfstream Park, a horse racing ground in Hallandale, Florida just north of Miami. The estimated attendance for the event was right about 100,000 paying patrons who came to see acts like Joni Mitchell, Grateful Dead, Terry Reid, Steppenwolf, Marvin Gaye, Fleetwood Mac and Chuck Berry. Admission price for the event was a whopping $7. (Yes, there were two, unrelated, "Miami Pop Festivals." Read about the May 1968 iteration below.)

Pioneering British music promoter, manager and PR agent Tony Calder, best known for his work with groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, died on Jan. 2 at the age of 74, according to reports. His innovative methods helped promote many of the U.K.’s largest acts for more than 50 years.

Calder started his career in the early ’60s at Decca Records where he met his eventual business partner, famed Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. In his time at Decca Calder met and worked with Brian Epstein, Seymour Stein and the Beatles. And, in 1962, he was assigned to promote the Fab Four’s first single “Love Me Do.” He sent hundreds of copies of the single to clubs, forcing record stores to stock the single and helping kick-start one of history’s most significant musical movements.

A year later, Calder and Oldham started IMAGE, an independent PR company that handled management for the Rolling Stones and eventually promoted the Beach Boys and Freddie and the Dreamers. The partners also formed one of the U.K.’s first and most controversial independent labels, Immediate Records. They signed artists such as Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac and Small Faces before shuttering in 1970, but remained at the center of a number of legal battles over unpaid royalties for decades.

In 1965 Calder undertook his sole venture into production when he stepped in for Oldham to work with Marianne Faithfull, producing two of her hits, “Come and Stay With Me” and “This Little Bird,” which reached 4th and 6th on the U.K. charts.

In the ’70s Calder signed groups like the Bay City Rollers and Black Sabbath, and eventually managed Eddy Grant for the most successful period of his career, eventually helping form Grant’s label — Ice Records. It is Calder who is credited with saving Grant’s “I Don’t Wanna Dance” from being a forgotten demo when he pushed for its release as a single.

Through the ’80s and ’90s Calder remained ever-present in the industry, forming the Big Wave group in ’88 and promoting three consecutive U.K. number ones for Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers. In 1994 he paired once again with Oldham when the two wrote the biography “Abba: The Name of the Game.” Calder finished his career with a return stint as Eddy Grant’s manager.

According to reports, Calder died of complications from pneumonia at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

Oldham told Variety: “Tony Calder helped me create Immediate Records; he had many other accomplishments. The fact that, via Immediate, we were able to create an example for the future was an achievement. Tony had ears and balls. I loved him and he will be missed.”

How Fleetwood Mac's 'Mascot' Harold Nearly Got The Band Thrown In Jail

There have been many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac over the years, but no former bandmate is more notorious than Harold — the 'mascot' that nearly got the group thrown in jail during their early days.

Back then, the group was struggling to stand out from the other British blues bands at the time. So they naturally decided that the best way to catch people's attention would be to put a "massive" dildo on Mick Fleetwood's drum kit during gigs.

"We wanted to stand out from all the other Englishmen playing traditional blues, so we never held back," Fleetwood later said. "I used to play with a massive dildo stuck to the top of my bass drum so the thing would wiggle front and centre through the entire set."

The salacious prop became so common that they nicknamed it Harold and treated it like a mascot. But Harold's touring days came to an abrupt halt when a performance in Texas nearly ended with them getting locked up for obscene behavior.

"Harold's showbiz life came to a crashing end at an American Southern Baptist college, where we were very nearly arrested for his performance," Fleetwood added. "Poor Harold was too much for them and, much to my wife's chagrin, he ended his days on show, sitting on our pine corner cabinet."

But Harold would still leave his mark on the band. The melancholic ballad 'Landslide' is actually about Harold tumbling off the bass drum one night. Just kidding. 'Landslide' has nothing to do with Harold, but good luck hearing it without picturing a jiggling sex toy next time it comes on the classic rock station.

My favourite photograph by musician Kenney JonesLegendary drummer Kenney, 69, recalls the partying, the pranks and the pride playing with his band of brothers, the Faces.

“When I look at photographs of the Faces, I get very nostalgic. This one of me, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Ronnie Lane was taken at a press call on the top deck of a bus at Reading Festival in 1972. We were a real band of brothers. We enjoyed life and partied to the full.

We’d have a bar on stage and a barman – one of our roadies, Chuch Magee, dressed as a waiter. Any of us could walk to the bar, sit on a stool and have a drink.

Although, as the drummer, my bar was on my drum riser. We were young enough to drink as much as we wanted.

When we were playing, fans felt like they were on stage with us having a party and we felt like we were part of the crowd. It created a joyous atmosphere.

We were getting paid to have a good time – such a good time we got banned from the Holiday Inn chain. We did smash up rooms in America.

Not that we instigated it, somebody else always did and we’d join in. Rod used to say at the end of gigs, ‘Party back at Ronnie’s room.’

He told the audience where we were staying and we ended up with loads of people there.

We played a festival in Puerto Rico once and, when we got to the hotel, our tour manager said, ‘They’ve banned the Faces.’

We said, ‘Who else is staying here?’ He said, ‘Fleetwood Mac.’ So, we checked in as them. That worked a few times.

When Steve Marriott had left the Small Faces, me, Ronnie (Lane) and Mac (Ian McLagan) were lost.

We’d had such success – it was a big blow.

We didn’t know what else to do, so we got together once a week to play in a warehouse the Rolling Stones had. One day, Ronnie Lane brought his new neighbour Ronnie Wood and he started playing with us.

Woody was leaving The Jeff Beck Band and so was his best mate, Rod. Rod used to sit on the amplifiers and watch us play.

When I asked him to join the band, he said, ‘Do you think everyone’d let me?’ I didn’t get a good response, as they didn’t want another Steve walking out on us, but I held my ground.

He’s got a great voice.

Rod says when Ronnie Lane left the band, the spirit wasn’t there anymore.

Ronnie and I had started the Small Faces in 1967 when I was learning drums and he was learning guitar.

For me, though, his spirit is there wherever I go.

Even though he’s no longer living, Ronnie’s never forgotten. I feel his spirit.

Mac’s as well.

I do feel proud of what we did.

I’ve been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Small Faces and the Faces and won two Ivor Novello Awards. We influenced many bands.

Paul Weller’s a massive Small Faces fan and Oasis were, too.

I’m proud of all of my career.

The Small Faces were the most creative, the Faces had the most party times and The Who were the most exciting because of the sheer power of the music.

Now, I’ve got my own band, The Jones Gang.

My 70th is coming up. I never thought I’d get this old, but it’s better than the alternative.

I’m lucky to be here.

I had cancer in 1984 – a tumour in my throat.

That scared the life out of me.

Then when I got prostate cancer, it was water off a duck’s back.

If you catch it early, there’s no problem.

The remaining Faces played at my polo club, Hurtwood Park, in 2015, to raise money for prostate cancer. It was great fun.

It’s our 50th anniversary next year, so we’ll do something for that, too.

Early John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac Producer Mike Vernon Readies New AlbumThe producer of the ‘Beano Album’ and the first Fleetwood Mac LPs steps into the spotlight.

Mike Vernon, the vastly experienced British blues producer and executive who worked with John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac and countless others, will release the new album Beyond The Blue Horizon, his first with his own band the Mighty Combo, on 7 September on Manhaton Records.

The album takes its name from the fact that Vernon was the co-founder, with Neil Slaven, of the hugely important British blues label Blue Horizon. He produced Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, the seminal 1965 album by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers that also became known as the ‘Beano Album.’

Vernon also supervised early David Bowie recording sessions, further Mayall albums such as A Hard Road and Crusade and was the original producer of Fleetwood Mac, overseeing their self-titled 1968 debut LP and the same year’s Mr. Wonderful. His remarkably varied resumé includes work with such blues-rock notables as Mick Taylor, Ten Years After, Savoy Brown and the Climax Blues Band, but also with pop-soul chart acts including Level 42 and Roachford.

Vernon has played the role of artist before, singing with the late 1970s disco-soul outfit the Olympic Runners and rock ‘n’ roll revivalists Rocky Sharpe and the Replays. But Beyond The Blue Horizon represents a new step in his career at the age of 73.

“To be fronting my own R&B outfit has always been a dream but the right moment to make that transition never appeared until now,” says Vernon. Setting the scene for the album’s inspiration, he goes on: “The year is 1956 and Little Richard and his totally outrageous song ‘Tutti Frutti’ hit the No. 1 spot on the US pop charts.

“Fats Domino had similar success with ‘When My Dreamboat Comes Home’ and ‘Blueberry Hill’ that same year whilst Chuck Berry introduced us to his unique rocking rhythm and blues style with ‘Roll Over Beethoven.’ Four slabs of musical genius that were to totally change my life.

“Fast forward 61 [sic] years to 2018 and the ‘with my own band’ debut album Beyond The Blue Horizon features tough, energising and tuneful rocking slabs of R&B in the vein of Fats Domino, Wynonie Harris, Little Richard and Louis Jordan,” Vernon goes on. “Twelve titles in all including nine new self-penned originals and three covers from the catalogues of Brook Benton, Mose Allison and Clarence Henry.”

Vernon and the Mighty Combo will tour extensively around the album, with UK dates booked all the way through the summer and into October, followed by festivals in France and Spain.

My Vinyl Countdown moves on with biggies, Clapton, Clash, Chapman and the Mac

My NP (now playing) this week is Fleetwood Mac. I have two of their albums on vinyl. The world renowned 'Rumours' and the lesser known 'Mystery to Me,' an album before the arrival of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

On 'Mystery' there's a song called 'Hypnotized' that people I've played it for fall in love with upon first listen. But few can guess that it's Fleetwood Mac. The ethereal song summons a semi-tropical hazy glaze. It's the best thing on this album other than the wild cover art featuring a baboon-like creature painting his lips with coconut oil? Dunno, but it fits the hypnotic vibe. As for Rumours what can you say. An album in the realm of classic like Carol King's 'Tapestry' or Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon.'

Practically every song is a hit and high quality and man I got tired of hearing them on every single radio station all day and all night back in the late 1970's.

Last night, Gov’t Mule’s summer tour continued with a stop at the Rose Music Center in Huber Heights, OH. Once again, The Magpie Salute opened the night and returned to the stage later in the evening to join Gov’t Mule’s encore with back-to-back covers, including rare performances of “Oh Well” by Fleetwood Mac and “Down By The River” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse to close the show.

To open the show, the Magpie Salute—featuring Rich Robinson and other ex-members of the Black Crowes, who just recently released a brand new album—heavily leaned on the album for their forty-five-minute set. Their brand of twang rock was well-received if only a bit short-lived.

Gov’t Mule came in with a powerful “World Boss” opener that had the crowd excited. Other old-school hits like “Banks of the Deep End”, “Lola Leave Your Light On”, and “Broke Down on the Brazos” opened up the single-set performance. The first portion of the evening was heavy on originals, providing space for the newer songs to really shine. One of the biggest highlights of the night came in the title track of 2017’s Revolution Come, Revolution Go… The band dug deep to bring a lengthy version of the song, which was bookended by the cover portion of the evening, including the Allman Brothers Band‘s “Come and Go Blues” and The Beatles‘ “She Said She Said” (with a “Tomorrow Never Knows” jam) on either side.

From there, Mule locked into a version of their own “Fallen Down”, which featured a Rolling Stones “Paint It Black” tease that segued into a jam based around the Grateful Dead‘s “The Other One”. The extended set closed with Ann Peebles‘ “I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”, Warren Haynes‘ Allman Brothers hit “Soulshine”, and Blind Willie Johnson‘s “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground”.

As has been the custom for this tour, Mule brought up members of the Magpie Salute for the encore. The first encore could actually be better described as the Magpie Salute featuring Warren Haynes, as no other members of Gov’t Mule were on stage. They played “Oh Well” by Fleetwood Mac, which had not appeared on a Mule setlist since 2008. Then, Mule drummer Matt Abts, bassist Jorgen Carlsson, and keyboardist Danny Louis returned to their positions alongside the Magpie Salute members to perform performed a stirring rendition of Neil Young’s “Down By the River”, which was last performed by Mule in 2016, and has only been played by the band four times in total. Rich Robinson took the first verse and Haynes took the second, welcoming everyone in to sing along with the refrain. It was the harmonizing that really made this performance special.

Both bands continue their tour and are expected to pleasantly surprise some more mainstream audiences as they prepare to open up for the Avett Brothers the next two shows. Gov’t Mule also just announced a fall tour including their customary Mule-o-ween performance. Head here for a list of upcoming Gov’t Mule shows.

Setlist: Gov’t Mule | Rose Music Center | Huber Heights, OH | 8/21/18

World Boss, Lola, Leave Your Light On, Born on the Brazos, Tributary Jam, Which Way, Banks of the Deep End, Stone Cold Rage, Sarah, Surrender, Come and Go Blues, Revolution Come, Revolution Go, She Said, She Said, Fallen Down, Other One Jam, Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home, Soulshine, Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground

Oh Well (Warren Haynes & all members of the Magpie Salute), Down By the River (Gov’t Mule featuring Rich Robinson, John Hogg, Marc Ford, and Matt Slocum)